Sheila Jackson Lee: “Let me thank the gentleman very much for his leadership. I acknowledge the chairman of the committee for his, as well. I…”

“Let me thank the gentleman very much for his leadership. I acknowledge the chairman of the committee for his, as well. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and although I will make the points that I think are important, I wanted to take the time to thank Mr. Conyers for the thoughtful legislation that he has introduced over the years. This leads me to call this the Conyers bill because of the important contributions it makes to ensuring that our health care is competitive, our health insurance is competitive, and his thoughtfulness in this legislation. As it comes to the floor, I am reminded of Mr. Conyers' influence on this legislation. It is an interesting time at which it comes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise to acknowledge the importance of H.R. 372, the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2017, a proposal to remove the antitrust exemption in the McCarran-Ferguson Act as it applies to health insurance. Overall, the proposed legislation, as well as previous attempts by the Judiciary Committee to repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act's antitrust exemption for health insurance, does not raise new or pressing issues. Opponents of repeal assume problems that cannot be documented, unlike the very tangible and real economic and competitive costs that will be incurred if the exemption is allowed to continue.…”